The OA’s Brit Marling Is Your New Intellectual Style Icon

Brit Marling—the cocreator, writer, and lead actress behind the complex, heart-wrenching Netflix show The OA—is not your typical Hollywood It girl. Marling attended Georgetown University, where she dallied in a potential future in investment banking. After taking an internship at Goldman Sachs, she was disenchanted with the industry and turned down a job offer from the company to pursue film instead. Fun fact: She was also briefly a freegan.

Marling has been documenting her time filming the second season of The OA in a stellar on-set wardrobe that is smart in several ways. Just yesterday, she uploaded an Instagram of herself in a polished, preppy look that included a pin-striped button-down, a brown V-neck sweater, wide-leg canvas trousers, and a pair of easygoing white Converse sneakers. The outfit had an intellectual Céline-style appeal, from the large-leg silhouette to the attention to layers, and was actually quite similar to the same power uniform that the label’s former creative director Phoebe Philo wears.

Other standout moments from Marling: She opted for a bookish-cool moment with a retro striped polo and mustard yellow accordion skirt while speaking about Naomi Klein’s political book No Is Not Enough. Marling knows how to dress up, too. She spoke along with writer-and-actress powerhouse Issa Rae at a summit about storytelling while wearing a Sies Marjan mint green silk skirt and royal blue top. But her most head-turning outfit may have been one she wore back in early February: a gray turtleneck and matching sweatpants with a quilted coat, scarf, and packed-to-the-brim backpack. She noted in the caption that she was “wearing the same clothes for [the] fifth day in a row.” Being hard at work has never looked so good.